Columbia, S.C. – June 13, 2007 – Gov. Mark Sanford today traveled to Greenville to sign S449, a bill that keeps South Carolina from participating in the costly federal mandate known as the REAL ID Act.

REAL ID is a federal initiative aimed at creating a national ID card. With the governor’s signature of the bill, South Carolina joined a growing number of other states that are declining to participate. If South Carolina were to participate in the ID program, the unfunded federal mandate would cost state taxpayers $25 million in startup costs and an additional $11 million on an annual basis. It would also increase DMV workloads by a projected 132 percent, pushing wait times to over an hour as every South Carolinian would be forced to get re-licensed in person under the new federal guidelines.

This is one of the times when I am happy that Federalism and state’s rights still mean something.